Avengers: The Initiative Annual (2008): 1st Liberteens

Avengers: The Initiative Annual had a Secret Invasion banner, but it was five short stories, most of which gave origins for some of the new characters introduced during year one of the series. The good news is that the series writers also wrote every chapter of the annual, so it has narrative consistency and relevance to the ongoing series. It’s also nice to see different artists getting a turn with this new team.

We start with Gauntlet, one the faculty members, whose power gauntlet also gets an origin, along with the mysterious Tactigon weapon that a clone of MVP used to injure and kill multiple members of the team in the mains series’ story arc that was published at the same time as this annual. Gauntlet got his gauntlet back in his army days when his unit took on Hydra and found both the gauntlet and the tactigon. Once Sergeant Green put on the glove, he was unable to take it off.

The next story is Armory’s origin, which is a bit strange because she killed MVP in the first issue and we haven’t seen her since. She’s such a minor character that I don’t even have a tag for her. That said, it’s a good story about how she got attached to the tactigon weapon that killed MVP. She was suicidal and the Tactigon weapon saved her life after she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Next? MVP. The dead guy. Only at least he’s not really dead.

Finally, Hardball also gets an origin. He got powers from Power Broker because his family needed to pay medical bills, tried to rob a bank, but through a series of accidents ended up being a hero.

Then, we see a new Initiative team (Pennsylvania) take on Flag Smasher and Ultimatum.

That’s a fun story, too. The PA team is the “Liberteens.”

And it’s the reason for the Secret Invasion banner: We learn that the skrulls infiltrated Iron Man’s 50-State initiative to ensure they had a soldier in every state.

Revolutionary is a skrull.